


The Taste of A Song

by toesohnoes



Category: Bedlam (TV)
Genre: M/M, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-16
Updated: 2011-10-16
Packaged: 2017-10-24 16:30:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toesohnoes/pseuds/toesohnoes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jed hears Ryan sing for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Taste of A Song

**Author's Note:**

> Written at my [Tumblr](http://toestastegood-fic.tumblr.com/post/11028120286/the-first-time-jed-hears-ryan-sing-it-takes-him), inspired by Will Young's gorgeous voice.

The first time Jed hears Ryan sing it takes him utterly by surprise.

His voice is otherworldly in intensity, hooking him in the gut. He stops with his beer bottle raised half-way to his mouth and stares: he looks gormless and blank, but he can’t even feel ashamed.

On the small karaoke stage, Ryan is hardly recognisable. The self-conscious baggage that he carries with him through life has been abandoned, replaced with a microphone and a spotlight. Slow music plays and Ryan’s voice croons through the bar. Conversations are stopping as people begin to pay attention where before the awkward attempts of their fellow patrons had been largely ignored.

Beside him, Molly whoops in delight and Kate smirks into her glass. “Didn’t he tell you?” Kate asks. “He used to be in a band.”

Jed shakes his head silently. He doesn’t look away from the stage, not even once.

“We don’t talk about it much,” Molly confides in a low murmur that undercuts Ryan’s voice. “They were good, but after what happened with Ryan’s brother… Well, they split up after that.”

“I’m surprised he’s singing tonight,” Kate says. “I thought he’d spend the night sulking with a pint glass.”

Jed doesn’t respond to them. Maybe, one day, Ryan will tell him the story himself. They have spent weeks together, curled in their own world with bare skin on skin, but it occurs to Jed now that he knows remarkably little about Ryan’s past before Bedlam. For all the secrets they’ve shared, Ryan’s lips have remained sealed on the topic of his past.

He relaxes into the sound, watching the emotion on Ryan’s face as he sings – it’s closer to peace than he’s ever seen. Ryan holds the microphone like he’s caressing it, and when the song ends the applause he receives is loud and enthusiastic. It makes Jed’s hands hurt with intensity.

The wide, sheepish smile is back as Ryan ducks his head and leaves the stage, coming back to their table with his shoulders hunched. It’s as if he’s trying to make himself smaller and more noticeable.

“That was amazing,” Molly says as he climbs onto the bar stool beside her.

His smile widens and his cheeks flush. Ryan glances towards Jed as if searching for his reaction too, but there’s nothing that Jed can say – instead he reaches out, hand spread on the back of Ryan’s neck, and kisses him.

He thinks, perhaps, he can taste the sound of Ryan’s voice inside his mouth.


End file.
